Through the halls of Stubley Hall, a Saracen love song haunts the place with the sound of the harp.
A great hall during Christmas times with good food, merry guests and an unmistakable sound of a harp playing a love song. Scared yet? No? Sounds like the right vibe for a cozy Christmas time perhaps. But if the harp playing comes from nowhere, and no one is playing, scared then? This is what festive guests might hear echoing through the halls every Christmas Eve at Stubley Hall, reminiscing about the tragedy of war and love.
Not far from Rochdale, Manchester in England, sits the Stubley Hall. Already in the 1600s, the hall was known for being “an ancient mansion with stables, barns, dovecotes and water mill”, so you know it is old, even by British standards. And such an old place carries many tales within the stone walls, and stories about the paranormal and sighting of ghosts has been plentiful. And one of them is the story about Fatima.
The Crusader With the Diamond Studded Cross
The knight Ralph de Stubley lived here once upon a time, a knight who served Richard the Lionheart during the crusades in Jerusalem. At the beginning of the crusades Ralph joined in on, they saw it as a successful mission as they were able to capture Saladin, the first sultan of Egypt and Syria. But they never quite managed to seize Jerusalem, which they saw as a spiritual symbol and as the holy city.
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One of the more romantic, yet tragic tales from the crusade wars, was about one of Saladin’s daughters. Her name was Fatima and she fell in love with Ralph during the raging battle of the holy city.
However in 1192 the British crusaders had to pull out after the battle of Jaffa, and Ralph was forced to leave Fatima behind. But before leaving, he swore his undying love for her, promising her he would return. As a token, he gave her a diamond studded cross to keep as a reminder of him.
Three years went by and Fatima heard nothing of the knight who promised to come back for her. Growing tired of just waiting she disguised herself as a troubadour and sailed across the ocean in search of him. Just bringing her harp she played so well but hadn’t been able to play in her sorrow. But she would never reach the shores of England to return to her beloved Ralph. On the eve of Christmas, she died. The plague had travelled with them on the ship and she and the rest of the passengers and crew perished.
The same night there was a wedding at Stubley Hall, Ralph’s wedding. He was to marry a wealthy Baron’s daughter. Maybe it was only to save the family who were in need of money, maybe he fell in love with another one. Either way, the song of his past lover came to the hall. During the celebrations he was standing by the window, not enjoying the festivities. He was maybe thinking of her, the woman he truly wanted to marry. It was then he heard it, the harp. The familiar but now so nostalgic sound of Fatima playing the harp, playing none other than the love song she had played for him, a traditional Saracen love song. He rushed into the grounds, thinking he would see her among the trees.
The guests noticed his disappearance and went after him and found him under an oak tree, dead, clutching a diamond studded cross.
The Legend of the Mistletoe Bough or the Mistletoe Bride is a ghost tale that many big houses claim as their own. Bramshill House is one of them, and the story of the dead bride trapped in the chest haunts the already haunted place.
Buried Alive: On Christmas Day the tale of the Mistletoe Bride that gets trapped in a chest and dies is told and retold throughout England.
A girl will always remember her wedding day, and making the wedding be held on Christmas day will surely make it easier to remember the wedding anniversary. But more people will remember it, if the bride turns into a ghost.
This is the case of the bride of Bramshill House in Hampshire, one of Britain’s most crowded paranormal places. And although many big houses tries to claim the ghost of the bride in the oak chest as their own, Bramshill could be one of the choices with no less than 14 ghosts they claim wander there.
Deadly Hide and Seek
In the early 17th century a girl named Anne Cope was to be married in this house. Anne is the name in some accounts, Genevre Orsini in others. English in some accounts while she was believed to be Italian in others. What remains the same is that it was Christmas Day and everyone was in a festive mood. She and her husband, Sir Hugh Bethell celebrated after having taken their vows, and as the old custom went, she was to be escorted to the marital bed.
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But before the party was over, the bride wanted to play a round of hide and seek, where the target to be found was her. And after a five minute start the search began, but to no avail.
Searching the whole house, the guest came back empty with no sign of the bride. Perhaps it was a trick from the bride? Could she just be exceptionally good at this game? But as time went on, the innocent prank she could have played on the guest turned into a dangerous one.
Many believed the bride had fled from her marriage. Her husband Hugh on the other side, spent decades searching for his bride that was lost. It was only after fifty years the mystery surrounding her disappearance came into light, and then her haunting had already began.
It is not the only ghost story from England that starts at a wedding during Christmas.
Hugh, now an old man, was in the attic, still searching. Having been through the mansion so many times, one should have thought there could be no more things to be found. But then, when knocking on some oak panelling, a secret door he didn’t know about suddenly opened. Inside the door was a room with a wooden chest. It was locked. Inside the chest when he finally got it open, the remains of the bride he had hoped to spend his life with, still in her wedding dress, holding her bouquet of wilted flowers, she had been by his side all this time.
In the lid of the chest the bride had been trapped in, there were signs of nails scraping in her dying efforts to escape, to get out, but she never would.
The Bride in the Oak Chest
The Chest: Although the original chest was removed in 1812, there is always a chest in the houses claiming the ghost. Photo: Country Life page 435 by Edward Hudson (1854–1936
So many accounts of the white lady has been reported at Bramshill House. Even Michael the first of Romania asked to move room after the white lady kept passing his room during his stay there. And you can sense her arrival by scent, lily of the valley, which was Anne’s favorite.
Not so many remember her wedding, her death, all in one. She is remembered as much, although her real name is disputable, the name Mistletoe Bride remains. Poems, movies, books and folklore retells about the young bride in the oak chest.
The same story was retold by Susan E Wallace in 1887 as ‘The Old Oak Chest’ and by Henry James as ‘The Romance of Certain old Clothes’ in 1868. The old tale also made it onto the silver screen in 1904 when Percy Stow made the short film ‘The Mistletoe Bough.’
And every Christmas, her death is retold again and again, without her ever being found alive. “Oh sad was her fate! In sportive jest, She hid from her Lord, in an old oak chest. It closed with a spring and her Bridal bloom, Lay withering there in that living tomb.”
Now a peaceful place for a road trip, it was once a hot spot for highwaymen and a dangerous place to travel. Sometimes, it was also dangerous for the robbers.
On a chilly Christmas Eve a woman and her father were riding in their carriage down the Road to Hawkhurst Kent. In the eighteenth century highwaymen were notorious and feared in the English countryside. They robbed whoever came their way, and sometimes, the robbery went more violently than necessary. And Hawkhurst housed some of the more notorious gangs and smugglers at the time, making the place feared along the English coast.
Alone With The Highwayman
Dangers on the road: A carriage was a sure sign of wealth and a target for the highwaymen. Photo: Asalto al coche (Robbery of the coach), by Francisco de Goya.
This had been the case of the young woman’s brother, who had been killed on maybe even the same road. But there was one road to take to get anywhere and the same family was again meeting an unfortunate end. The carriage was stopped by the highwayman Gilbert when they were around the village of Marden in Kent. He ordered the father and daughter out of the carriage to strip them of their possessions and valuables. But as soon as the daughter stepped on the ground, the horse bolted, carrying her father away, leaving her all alone with the robberer at the side of the road, seemingly helpless.
But the story comes with a twist seldom seen in other horror stories like these. A horror, not only by being robbed, dawned on her as she laid eyes on the face of the man. She recognised him, Gilbert, as the one who had murdered her brother as well. And she refused to see such a fate befall on herself. Enraged and afraid she drew a knife and stabbed the before he could take more from her by reaching for a hidden knife in her bag and planting it into Gilbert’s side and fled into the bushes.
When the father and the driver managed to calm the horses, they returned to the sight of where they had left her alone. There, all they could find was Gilbert’s dead body that they buried on the side of the road.
The Price of Her Life
It wasn’t until the next day the woman was found by the villagers of Marden, wandering around after having stabbed a man to death. All alone this cold Christmas Eve she had been fleeing from the danger from last night. But although she escaped alive, her body unharmed, it is told that during the night she had gone completely mad.
And every Christmas Eve since, the same scene, the robbery, the murder is repeated by their ghosts, first by Gilbert himself, then later perhaps joined by the woman.
In 1941 a fighter plane crashed in a field in the English countryside during WW2. The pilots died in the crash, but a mysterious black cat lingered. Now it is coming back every year on the date of the crash as a ghost cat, haunting the field.
It’s 1941 and the second world war is a fact across the continent and the European sky is littered by blinking lights in the sky from the German Blitzkrieg. Although the sky is not lit up by stars now, but by war planes. For the naked eye from the ground it is impossible to see if it is an enemy or friend inside the cockpit, the people around start learning to recognize the airplanes by sound.
There are countless of stories tal tells about the tragic things that happened during this dark period of time. And more than one story emerged that somehow involved this war.
This is not a war story about the ghost of a fallen soldier though, but the ghost cat that kept haunting the place the soldiers died.
On the eve of 23rd of October in 1941, a plane was soaring in the sky over the green land of Poynton Green in Shropshire, England. The plane was coming back after a night sortie and heading back to base. But something went wrong that night and the trip ended horrible. The night that was pitch dark until then is now lit up as the plane is heading straight to the ground.
The airplane that crashed: It was a British Beaufighter that crashed into a field and burned that night. This is where the ghost cat that is said to haunt the scene were it all happened is supposed to emerge from.
The plane is a British Beaufighter, belonging to the 68 Squadron of the Royal Air Force (RAF), and was heading to High Ercall where the RAF had an airfield. For an unknown reason the plane crashed in the field and the flames started to take over the aircraft.
A local farmer came to the site to help and put the fire out, but it was too late and the flames engulfed the plane along with the people inside.
It was the Czechoslovak pilot Josef Kloboučník and sergeant Josef Klváčel, the radio operator that crashed with the plane and died that night. They were the first Czech members of the squadron, and they would never see the end of the war they fought in.
The Black Cat Haunting the Crash Site
But the farmer that tried to help them didn’t leave empty handed however that night. As the plane went up in flames a black cat emerged from the burning plane. The farmer is said to have kept the cat as a pet for many years until it died as well.
According to some sources the farmer ended up giving the cat to an old woman that lived nearby. And that cat supposedly disappeared after the old woman died. But it still wasn’t completely gone and is said to have returned as a ghost cat.
Every ten years it is said that a black ghost cat is seen at the crash site, the ghost cat still lingering even after all these years. And in 2031 it is supposed to make its comeback.
Along the road in the English town, the ghost of a lady on the run haunts the area, allegedly causing accidents, and even deaths. This is the legend of the running lady of Beeford.
Beeford, East Yorkshire in England doesn’t sound like the most haunted place on earth. With the red bricked houses it looks like a classical quaint English town, never changing, dormant. Perhaps like the set of Midsummer Murders or the location of an Agatha Christie novel. Perhaps it indeed look a bit haunted, after all. Truth is, this place has been there even before England came to be. Mention in the Domesday Book, it has been there for a thousand years. Perhaps it will last a thousand more?
And everyone knows that old towns must have their own local ghosts. And here, they have the legend of the running lady of Beeford that is haunting the roads leading in and out of the town.
Causing Accidents and Deaths
This particular ghost is a ghost on the road. On a stretch of road between Beeford and Brandenburton, a ghost of a lady has been seen roaming around late at night. The ghost lady is also called the Running Lady as she is seen running across the Beeford Straight toward the North Frodingham junction.
Tales of her ghost causing accidents have been told over the years in the more modern area, as it’s usually involves cars. Not only is the ghost reported on being seen, but the running lady of Beeford has also been the one to blame for several accidents on this particular road.
The Running Lady of Beeford: There is a local legend that people have seen the Runnin Lady of Beeford, haunting the road. Some of the stories about her, even hints that she was the cause of a deadly car crash.
One of these stories details the curse she has supposedly put on this place made a car crash into a three, killing six people. What made the crash? An accident caused by witnessing the running lady of Beeford, or something more sinister as some of the version of the legend hints at?
There is also an anecdote about a motorcyclist picking up a female on the stretch on that road, only to find her gone when he turned around after a few miles. This story collides a bit with her habit of being on the run, but falls in line of the urban legend of a hitchhiker wanting a lift, but disappearing.
The Vanishing Hitchhiker is a well known urban legend throughout the world. Here is a Moonmausoleum original writings based on the Urban Legend – The Vanishing Hitchhiker
What’s the Truth Behind the Running Lady of Beeford?
This ghost story falls right into the White Lady legend from Europe we can read about in so many of the classic ghost stories. Also, stories about ghosts along the road is also a well documented phenomenon across the world by now. But what about this particular legend of the running lady of Beeford? How much does it ring true?
Considering that Beeford is such a small place there would be more documented that six people actually died in a car crash around that area. But as per now, we have found no such proof.
And the description of her appearance is so vague and non existing that it’s hard to make out what type of lady we are seeing. Well that is, if we see anything at all.
The gothic haunting of the small town of Whitby is said to be by the old Whitby Abbey were the ghost of a nun is haunting the ruins. Whitby was also a place Bram Stoker used for a setting for Dracula’s arrival to England.
Whitby is cute little English town on the Yorkshire Coast, like taken out from any period drama movie. By the sea on nice days, the people are out in the streets, walking up the piers, sitting in the small cute boat and walking past the picturesque houses. But that is until the weather turns and the clouds are gathering in the sky, making the once blue sea foam. And the weather always turns for the worse in these seaside towns facing the North Sea.
Steeped in history, one need only to spin around to touch ruins, memories and ghosts of the past. And Whitby town is indeed haunted, at least if you believe Bram Stoker, the father of modern horror.
The Legends of Whitby Abbey
But before talking about Dracula, let’s have a look at some of the older legends the place is haunted by.
Much of the settlements back in the day was attributed to Whitby Abbey that was built in the mid 600 and founded by Hilda of Whitby, the abbess of several monasteries and an important figure in the Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England. At that time the Whitby Abbey was a center for the medieval Northumbrian kingdom.
Hilda of Whitby was renowned for her wisdom and counseled Kings, princes and nuns alike. Whitby Abbey was known as Streoneshalh, and she remained there for the rest of her years as an abbess. Hilda of Whitby was was also the one inspiring one of the first British poets, Cædmon, to start out in his endeavor.
Saint Hilda of Whitby: The Abbess of Whitby Abbey was a well known woman and known for her wisdom and good counselling. She is also one of the ghost reported to haunt the ruins of the abbey.//Source: Detail from St. Hilda at Hartlepool by James Clark James (artist) (oil painting)
The last seven years of her life was a struggle for Hilda as she suffered from a fever. But nevertheless she continued her work until her death on 17th of November in 680 AD. She was then 66 years old, and that was pretty impressive in those days. According to a nun who lived there called Begu, she saw Hilda’s soul being carried to heaven by angels and she became a Saint.
The Ghost of Hilda of Whitby
Many strange legends arose after her death, like how a local legend says that when sea birds fly over the abbey they dip their wings in honour of Saint Hilda.
And it was not the last time someone would claim to see her after her death. On dark nights in Whitby there have been reports of Hilda in the highest window on the northern side of Whitby Abbey when the winds comes blowing in from the sea. She is only seen for a few moments, looking out the window before she again disappears.
According to lore there are also two faiths that can befall you if you look into the well at the abbey at midnight. Those with a pure heart will see Hilda of Whitby, those without a pure will be taken by the devil. So perhaps seeing a ghost here is just a good omen?
We know little of what happened to Whitby Abbey after the death of Hilda, as Danish Vikings invaded it in 867, leaving it desolate for more than 200 years. It was first then the name Whitby was being used, meaning White City in old Norse.
The Picturesque Scenery:The ruins of Whitby Abbeyin the sunset. There have been many legends about this abbey being haunted by the founding abbess, seen in the dark nights in one of the windows, the bells that used to hang in the abbey are sometimes heard ringing under the water where they sank./Wikimedia
After the invaders of the Norman, they made the Whitby Abbey to a Benedictine house for men that lasted to the Dissolution of Monasteries in 1539. A process that was often painted with the blood of the Catholics and where they stripped the churches, abbeys and other holy catholic places for its riches. In any case they stole the bells in Whitby Abbey and tried to take them to London, but on the way there, the ship sank together with the bells.
It is said that the ghost of St Hilda of Whitby appears in the ruins sometime as the bells can be heard ringing under the water were they sank. Now the ruins of the abbey stands at the top of East Cliff, looking out to the sea, missing its bells, its walls and its roof that are now only a story.
The Ghost of the Walled up Nun Haunting Whitby Abbey
But Hilda isn’t alone in the ruins of Whitby Abbey according to the local legend. The legend tells of another nun, a Constance De Beverley, who is haunting the walls of the ruined abbey.
Constance De Beverley was a young girl, but had already taken her vow to become a nun and devote herself to God and take no man for the rest of her life. But she broke them when she fell in love with a young knight and thereby breaking her celibacy. She was found out and the sisters in Whitby Abbey walled her inside the walls when she was still alive in the dungeon.
Haunted by the Ghost of its Nuns: Ruins of Whitby Abbey filled of history, myths and secrets. One of them is the story about the nun who according to legend became walled up inside the walls of the abbey because of her sins. Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Could it be St. Hilda of Whitby who did it? A confirmed Saint that could have done something like burying one of her sisters inside of the walls? These were, as they’re called: The Dark Ages. The abbey had many abbesses over the years though, and who and when it was suppose to happen, is a bit unclear.
It is said that according to legend, if you walk around the ruins one can perhaps hear the screams of a woman in the wind and a plea for forgiveness and mercy. Perhaps it is coming from the walls? There has also reported a fleeting image of the ghost of a young girl, fleeing the abbey, trying to free herself for her eternal tomb in the walls.
Whether the story is true or not, it has certainly left an impression on those who heard it. The story of Constance De Beverley being condemned to be walled up in the abbey might have been the inspiration of Sir Walter Scott’s poem ‘Marmion‘ . It is about a nun of the same name that meets the same fate. Or perhaps the poem gave birth to a legend? Who’s to say?
But perhaps today, Whitby is more known for its fiction than for its history. Today, every summer there is a performance of the story of Dracula at Whitby Abbey. Wonder what Hilda thinks of that.
But many things found in Dracula is drawn on the experience of the Whitby history, even the legend about a nun haunting hte abbey. In the book, Mina writes in her diary:
“Right over the town is the ruin of Whitby Abbey, which was sacked by the Danes … It is a most noble ruin, of immense size, and full of beautiful and romantic bits; there is a legend that a white lady is seen in one of the windows.”
In the book, Dracula arrives with a ship that beaches on the shores of Whitby. This actually happened with the Russian ship Dmitri: “The sequel to the strange arrival of the derelict in the storm last night is almost more startling than the thing itself. It turns out that the schooner is a Russian from Varna, and is called the Demeter. She is almost entirely in ballast of silver sand . . . “ (Bram Stoker, Dracula, 1897). Even the name, Dracula, Stoker found in the old library there.
Dracula in Whitby Town: The arrival of Dracula arriving on the ship Demeter has become a pretty iconic part of the lore. Bram Stoker became inspired to write his story when he visited Whitby Town and and saw the gothic ruins of Whitby Abbey and the grey shores on the English countryside.
Bram Stoker arrived and stayed at Mrs Vewazey’s Guesthouse in the summer of 1890. He was supposed to work on a new story, set in Styria, Austria with a character called Count Wampyr (thank you old public library of Whitby for giving the character another name than that). The Gothic literature drew on landscapes like this, and maybe not surprisingly, the ruins of Whitby Abbey, the desolated shores and the ghostly tales by the locals made it a perfect setting for what would become Dracula’s first encounter with England.
The Last Voyage of the Demeter
The interest for Dracula related movies and books continues to this day, and is based on the single chapter, the Captain’s Log, from Bram Stoker’s classic 1897 novel Dracula, the story is set aboard the Russian schooner Demeter and what happens before they arrive at Whitby Harbour.
The Last Voyage of the Demeter is scheduled to be released theatrically in the United States on August 11, 2023 and will help keep the legends of the Whitby haunting alive as well as creating its own vampiric lore there.
Perhaps this is not the greatest summer to travel, but as the borders are opening up, so do we as well move over greater distances than we have. Perhaps some of these places are even closer to you than you think? Here we have gathered some of the most haunted attractions around the world you can visit for a ticket.
Winchester Mystery House San Jose, California
The Mystery House: Front view of the Winchester Mystery House/Ben Franske
This strange house, built upon the money, wealth and grief of the family fortune, the gun trade, this house is something else. Wind winding staircases going nowhere, doors leading to unknown destination and who know how much else secrets and hauntings the house holds.
The fortress was built in medieval times, withstanding plague, starvation from the cold winters and as a last stand during wars. It is also the location of several ghost the fortress has claimed as its own over the years. Smacked in the middle of the modern city of Oslo, it stands as a stark contrast of old and new, living and dead.
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Island of the Dolls, (La Isla de las Muñecas) Mexico City, Mexico
If not for the ghost, go for the creepy decor. Allegedly a man found a dead girl and her doll. He started collecting dolls to appease the girls spirit. Now the island is full of them, hanging from trees, looking at all the tourists taking their holiday at this peculiar place. For around 200 pesos you can get a boat to take you there. On the island, there is also a bar. So, hey, holiday!
The Catacombs Paris, France
Bones: Wall made of skulls, catacombs of Paris/Djtox/wikicommons
A final resting place for some, not so restful for others. The catacombs were created in 1786 and are 500 miles of an underground maze, built of bones of the dead. And for a ticket, you can walk them. It has been held several scary paranormal claims, and it will only probably be more of them.
Yes, the tower, how many ghosts do you have captured? The fortress smacked in the busy streets of Londong have been a infamous spot for death and misery for over 900 years. It also holds some royal ghosts that never found peace, among them Anne Boleyn and Mary, Queen of Scots.
The murder of Maria Marten, a case called The Red Barn Murder got a lot of media coverage in England because of the strange circumstances. The murder was allegedly solved by the appearance of the ghost of the victim, haunting people’s dreams.
‘”If you’ll meet me at the Red Barn as sure as I have life I will take you to Ipswich Town and there make you my wife.” This lad went home and fetched his gun, his pick-axe and his spade. He went unto the Red Barn and there he dug her grave.With her heart so light she thought no harm, to meet her love did go He murdered her all in the barn and he laid her body low – The Folksong The Murder of Maria Marten
The year of 2004. The Place? at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. A skeleton, reassembled so many times and exhibited, used as a teaching aid in the West Suffolk Hospital. It is almost possible to forget that the people hanging there, next to the teacher, used to be a living human. What cruel fate it is, to always be on display. But then we can wonder, why? Why do you hang there? Is this your punishment? Did you do something? And who hangs beside you? The question is always asked.
“Who is that skeleton?”
Beside you is someone infamous. Jonathan Wild, the notorious gang leader in Britain, known as the great corrupter. The students might know his name, his crime. But who are you? Does anyone remember your name?
The Skeleton of the Murderer William Corder
The skeleton sitting in the classroom actually belongs to William Corder, a man that would end up in the infamous case of The Red Barn Murder.
He was a boy like any other, born in 1804 to a prosperous tenant farmer in Suffolk, England. He was nicknamed Foxey at school and was a bright kid. He had his whole life in front of him and he had some dreams of becoming a journalist or a teacher as he had some talent for writing. But there was a darkness in Corder that eventually would devour him.
Corder’s father liked his brothers much better according to the rumours around town, and he was sent to London to find work, not wanting to fund his sons dreams. He was said to be a liar and a cheater, thereof the name Foxey most likely. He was also known for petty theft, like when he sold his father’s pig. Yes, his father’s pig.
In London, he fell into bad company and spent all of the money his father gave him. He was a well known ladies man and all around an untrusty fellow. But Corder’s biggest crime was the Red Barn Murder and being found out by the ghost of Maria Marten, the woman he murdered.
Maria Martens Life and Death
After a while, William was called back to the farm from his wild time in London. There he met Maria, daughter of a mole catcher in the same small village, two years older than him and the likes of William Corder didn’t immediately catch her interest.
Maria Marten: The young girl ended up being the victim in the Red Barn Murder/Wikimedia
Maria Marten was 17 years old with a taste for finer things with a curse on her head and would end up as the victim in The Red Barn Murder. There is the story about her that a fortune teller once said that she wouldn’t reach old age, but would have many lovers and riches.
Before getting involved with William Corder she was actually seeing Williams older brother, Thomas. He was the oldest and also the fathers favorite and the two got into a relationship that was doomed from the start.
Thomas Corder wanted to keep the relationship secret as she wasn’t regarded of the same status as himself, being poorer and of a family with a “low” status. The Corders were after all, prosperous farmers.
That didn’t stop him from getting involved with her though and Maria Marten fell pregnant with Thomas child. Thomas left her when she told him about her pregnancy, perhaps hoping it would convince him to go for her after all.
It did not, and she gave birth to his child alone, but the child died a couple of weeks later. Maria then got into a relationship with a Peter Mathews, a middle age man who also dropped her after giving him a son called, Thomas Henry in 1824.
Indeed she had some lovers, perhaps some riches. And indeed she wouldn’t be alive for long.
William Corder and Maria Marten’s Relationship
When William Corder came home from London, bad luck struck his family. His father died and his brothers got very ill, leaving him to manage the farm together with his mother. And this is were he got to know Maria and they got involved in a relationship. But it wasn’t a happy match from either of their families stands. She on her side was already left with a ruined reputation by a Corder. And from the Corder’s perspective, she was a fallen woman and not from a prosperous family like theirs.
The Red BarnMurder: The old barn close to their houses was the scene of the Red Barn Murder and later a tourist attraction. It is now burned down./Wikimedia
This didn’t stop them meeting, although they met in secret. Often at a red barn right by Marias house. It was called that because of the red tiles on the roof and would later be a tourist place as the location of where The Red Barn Murder happened. But the secret of their relationship was not to last for long, as Maria became pregnant again. Maria wanted William to marry her, and according to him, he said yes.
At the same time that winter, William’s brother and Maria’s ex-lover, Thomas was walking over a frozen lake. The ice cracked and Thomas went under, drowning. William was now the owner of the farm as the only son.
Between Maria being pregnant, the farm being in financial troubles and his brother dying, it seems that it put a toll on him. He put Maria in a lodging at Sudbury, a couple of miles away from home to have their baby. But this too should not live and died soon after. William buried the child in a field and there have been speculations that this was not a natural death and that he might have killed their love child as well. And these day, who could really tell?
The Red Barn Murder
Maria and William started to argue about some money that may have been stolen, they argued about the burial of the child and how it looked like William would not marrying Maria after all. At one point the pair made a plan, when William said they should elope to Ipswich. She would come dressed as a boy and they would meet in the Red Barn were they had met countless of times before.
Why would William Corder elope now? Now that he didn’t have a father or older brother to interfere? One of the problems the couple had was with Maria and her crimes. It wasn’t necessarily unlikely or weird that they would like to run away, as Maria had several charges on her for bearing illegitimate children. Criminal at that point in time.
The days before their plan was set into motion was the last time Maria Marten was seen alive. William began acting odd and a lot of questions were asked about her. Where was Maria? Wasn’t he going to Ipswich with her?
He told the people asking she had gone ahead to Ipswich, but then he changed the story, and told she had gone to Great Yarmouth and wouldn’t be able to return yet. Then he changed the story again, and he said he was meeting Maria and that they were going to marry. He said he felt unwell and traveled to Isle of Wight, writing back home that they were married and happy there. He said he was sorry that Maria couldn’t write herself as she had hurt her hand and wondered why some of her letters hadn’t made its way back home.
The Ghost of Maria Marten Haunting the Dreams
This vague and strange story didn’t sit well with her family though. The Marten family did not believe William and his excuses as to why they hadn’t seen or heard from her. But in a strange twist of fate, she would find other means to contact her family.
Maria had a young stepmother back in Polstead, Ann Marten. She was troubled by strange and scary dreams about her stepdaughter. Twice Ann Marten had woken from a terrible dream that she herself knew to be true. When she shared them with her husband they looked for Maria in their town and found her.
Read Also: Another ghost story about a ghost that allegedly help solve her own murder case, read about The Greenbrier ghost in The Ghost that Went to Court
The dreams to her stepmother told that Maria had been murdered in the Red Barn buried under the floor and not gone to Isle of Wight at all. Her husband, Maria’s father was sent to the barn and looked for his daughter, prodding the ground with a mole-spike. There he discovered the remains of his daughter, brutally murdered and discarded under the floor for a long time.
Maria was shot as well as stabbed multiple times to death. They brought her to The Cock Inn and, decomposed as she was, her sister Nancy identified her from the clothes, the hair and a gap in her teeth. Around Maria’s neck they found a green handkerchief. According to the witnesses it belonged to William Corder. Was she also strangled? Was she even dead before he buried her in the grain storage bin her father found her in?
The Trial of The Red Barn Murder
Back in Ealing were William had fled, he knew nothing of the mysterious dreams and the discovery of Maria under the barn. Time went by and William needed a wife. He put an ad in The Times and asked for a wife. He picked Mary Moore and they set up a young ladies school in Ealing, West London. He was moving forward in his life. But Maria wasn’t forgotten yet.
Boiling some eggs at home the police came knocking at his door and apprehended him. First he denied that he knew of this Maria Marten, but the evidence was there and he was brought back to Suffolk.
And the press was on this, coming from all across the country to behold the spectacle of his trial and the strange circumstances around it. The case of The Red Barn Murder even got a play on stage before Corder even came to trial, which they actually sold tickets to.
The Red Barn Murder Frenzie: The execution of William Corder, the Red Barn Murderer was a popular event and thousands of people attended/Wikimedia
Forensic pathology was not as advanced yet and it was impossible to determined what of the things that killed Maria. That is why he was charged with nine different murder charges, where shooting, strangling, stabbing and burying alive was a couple of them.
“By that powerful engine of the press,” he said, “I have been described…as the most depraved of human monsters,” he said of the media coverage.
Corder’s defense was articulate, but improbable, claiming Maria herself had taken her own life, but he was found guilty on the circumstantial and medical evidence, and sentenced to hang.
It was the Chief Baron Alexander that was the judged, and he added that his dead body was to be dissected and anatomized, almost like a second punishment.
The Execution of William Corder
The execution was a great play and melodrama itself, and several thousands of spectators had tickets to the show of William Corder’s last moments. During his last days the prison chaplain had tried to get a confession from William who had denied all of the charges against him. Finally, William Cordery admitted to killing MAria by accident during one of their many quarrels. What he denied was stabbing her. Perhaps it was the mole-spike her father looked for her with that made those wounds?
In any case, he took the punishment for all of her injuries. His last words were: “I am guilty; my sentence is just; I deserve my fate; and, may God have mercy on my soul.” He was left hanging for an hour, most likely in agony before he died.
After his death he was transported to Shire Hall were he was left for science as the sentence was. But many of the things done to his body after death was highly unscientific. For one,his skin was removed, tanned and used as a book cover that described his crimes and live. Like the most bizarre biography.
What happened that day? Was Maria’s mother psychic? She was only around a year older than Maria, and had not exhibited similar dreams before. Perhaps it’s a bit odd that her dreams started just after news of Williams marriage to Mary Moore. And there were also some rumors that linked her as a lover with William.
What happened skeleton hanging in the lecture hall? Truth be told, it isn’t even William. At least, not all of it. After his hanging, he was chopped up, his body dissected in front of anatomy students, perhaps even used as an experiment with galvanism.
The Red Barn Murder Frenzie
Perhaps the most gruesome thing was that none of the people involved were left in peace after their death, as the story about the Red Barn Murder was a sensational tale and people flocked to the location as well as tried to get a hold of some sort of suveniers from the case.
After the execution, William Corden’s ear was sold, his skull was taken by Dr John Kilner who collected The Red Barn Murder memorabilia. Even pieces of the rope he was hanged in was cut up and sold for a guinea. Perhaps the disturbance of the dead came back to haunt the living that looked at their death as some sort of amusing spectacle?
After many strange and tragic events that happened after The Red Barn Murder enthusiast Dr John Kilner took the skull for himself to his collection, he believed that the skull was cursed and gave it to ta friend. But bad fortune kept plaguing the two men and in the end they decided to pay for a Christian burial to lift the curse of the skull of the murderer William Corder.
Maria also kept being disturbed after The Red Barn Murder. A lock of her hair was sold at two guineas and Polstead with her cottage, the Red Barn and her grave became a tourist attraction and people started chipping away at it so it completely disappeared. The grave as well as the Barn, planks, roof tiles and all sold as macabre souvenirs.
After 2004, the skeleton of William Corder, or at leas what was left of him was removed from the classroom and finally put to rest six feet under.
But the rumors still lingers about the ghost of Maria haunting her stepmother’s dreams, about what really happened that night of The Red Barn Murder. But maybe it is time William got some peace, having served over 200 years for his crimes.
One of the more haunting and mysterious ballads of the middle ages is the ballad of the Maiden in the Moor Lay.
The poem of the moor lady has only been preserved in one manuscript found in the Bodleian library in Oxford and tells the strange tale of something that can remind of a haunting of a maiden. The ballad was once set to a melody that are now forever lost along with the name of the author. Probably we will never know what the song is really about and who this lady can be. It is probably from the fourteenth century and this is the lyrics:
Old English
Maiden in the mor lay– in the mor lay– Seuenyst fulle, seuenist fulle. Maiden in the mor lay– in the mor lay– Seuenistes fulle ant a day.
Welle was hire mete. wat was hire mete?
The primerole ant the– the primerole ant the– Welle was hire mete. Wat was hire mete? The primerole ant the violet.
Welle was hire dring. wat was hire dring? The chelde water of the– the chelde water of the– Welle was hire dring. Wat was hire dring? The chelde water of the welle-spring.
Welle was hire bour. wat was hire bour? The rede rose an the– The rede rose an the– Welle was hire bour. wat was hire bour? The rede rose an the lilie flour.
English Translation
Maiden in the moor lay, In the moor lay– Seven nights full, seven nights full. Maiden in the moor lay-
In the moor lay– Seven nights full and a day.
Good was her meat. What was her meat? The primrose and the– The primrose and the– Good was her meat. What was her meat? The primrose and the violet.
Good was her drink. What was her drink? The chilled water of the– The chilled water of the– Good was her drink.
What was her drink? The chilled water of the well spring.
Good was her bower. What was her bower? The red rose and the– The red rose and the- Good was her bower. What was her bower? The red rose and the lily flower.
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Who was the maiden, or rather what was she? Christians claim her as Virgin Mary to make it more holy, folklore claim her as something older. Perhaps a germanic water sprite, a fairy. Some interpret the maiden as an ordinary girl, perhaps even a ghost? That is probably lost to history and both the origin of the song as well as the original melody is something we can only guess.
In honor of the new spin-off series, Penny Dreadful: City of Angels (2020), we took a nostalgic look back to the awesome Showtime series that started it all. RIP Original series, you were cancelled all too soon.
Penny Dreadful is a British-American horror drama television series created for Showtime and Sky by John Logan. It ran for three seasons from 2014-2016.
Iconic Vanessa Ives (Eva Green). An original character and also some of the most well crafted ones.
Penny Dreadful is an old term used during the nineteenth century to refer to cheap popular serial literature. Sort of like pulp fiction. It was also called penny blood, penny awful, or penny horrible. It means a story published in weekly parts, with the cost of one (old) penny. The main plot of these stories were typically sensational, focusing on the adventures of detectives, criminals, or supernatural entities.
This is exactly what Penny Dreadful was, and what it payed homage to. So we found some old stuff the series borrowed or was inspired by. And there is A LOT. So get your cigarette on a stick and let’s go on some vampiric monster hunt with out pals.
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel written by English author Mary Shelley (1797–1851) that tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a hideous sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment.
Harry Treadaway played Victor Frankenstein, an arrogant, reclusive young doctor whose ambition and research involve transcending the barrier between life and death. In this show, Dr. Victor Frankenstein likes to quote the romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley’s second wife was Mary Shelley.
The Picture of Dorian Gray is a Gothic and philosophical novel by Oscar Wilde, first published complete in the July 1890 issue of Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine. Fearing the story was indecent, the magazine’s editor deleted roughly five hundred words before publication without Wilde’s knowledge. It is Wilde’s only novel.
In the series he was played by Reeve Carney. A charismatic man who is ageless and immortal. And this Dorian Gray had a great, but utterly confusing story line. Where his purpose in the show was to throw great balls and parties and have sex with absolutely every character.
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus, Victor Frankenstein is tempted by his monster’s proposal to create a female creature so that the monster can have a wife: “Shall each man,” cried he, “find a wife for his bosom, and each beast have his mate, and I be alone?”
In Penny Dreadful, the bride of Frankenstein is Brona Croft (portrayed by Billie Piper), an Irish immigrant with a dark past who dies of tuberculosis at the end of Season 1. In season 2, she is brought back to life with no memory after Frankenstein’s monster demands a bride and given the new name “Lily Frankenstein” by Victor. That last scene of her speech will haunt television forever.
Often called John Clare. He was a labour poet in the mid 1800’s England. But if it is a reference to the creature is unclear. What is clear though is that the creature often is called Caliban as well, a character from Shakespear’s The tempes. Half human, half monster. In some traditions he is depicted as a wild man, or a deformed man, or a beast man, or sometimes a mix of fish and man, a dwarf or even a tortoise. Another connection from the creature to penny dreadful is Dorian Gray. In the preface of The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde muses: “The nineteenth century dislike of Realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass. The nineteenth century dislike of Romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass.”
In the series he was played with Rory Kinnear, and had long storylines without many of the characters, alone.
Dracula is an 1897 Gothic horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. Dracula was a big influence from the start. From Mina being taken by him, the chase after Dracula and several character that appears in the series. Van Helsing included. But the series managed to make a twist of it all, and the influence of Dracula is almost as if just a eerily familiar setting and feeling of the series. He did however show up in series three in the flesh. Christian Camargo as Dracula, the brother of Lucifer who fell to Earth to feed on the blood of the living as the first vampire. In London, he takes the guise of kindly zoologist Alexander Sweet to captivate Vanessa.
In season 3 of TV series Penny Dreadful, Patti LuPone portrays Dr. Florence Seward, a female version of the character. It is originally a character from Dracula, a doctor in the insane asylum, He calls in his mentor, Abraham Van Helsing, to help him with her illness, and he helps Seward to realize that Lucy has been bitten by a vampire and is doomed to become one herself. He was in love with her and proposed to her, but was rejected. After she is officially destroyed and her soul can go to heaven, Seward is determined to destroy Dracula.
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is a gothicnovella by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, first published in 1886. It is about a London legal practitioner named Gabriel John Utterson who investigates strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr Henry Jekyll, and the evil Edward Hyde.
Dr. Jekyll (Shazad Latif) as a former classmate of Dr. Frankenstein’s.
Varney the vampire
Abraham Van Helsing gives a copy of Varney the Vampire to Victor Frankenstein, explaining that the story is more truth than fiction and that the mysterious creature the series’ characters are pursuing is a vampire.
Justine
Justine, or The Misfortunes of Virtue is a 1791 novel by Donatien Alphonse François de Sade, better known as the Marquis de Sade. Justine is set just before the French Revolution in France and tells the story of a young girl who goes under the name of Thérèse. Her story is recounted to Madame de Lorsagne while defending herself for her crimes, en route to punishment and death.
In Penny Dreadful she is the a homeless, brutalized young prostitute who becomes an acolyte to Lily played by Jessica Barden. In an interview with John Logan from the show, he also said the relationship between Justine and Lily was inspired by th Novella Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan LeFanu
Larry Talbot was the main character in the movie series the Wolfman from 1941 and onward. There are sequels, reboots and several other medias tied into this franchise. He has his own interaction with all the Penny Dreadful characters from Dracula, Frankenstein and so on in his own franchise as well.
In the TV series Penny Dreadful, Ethan Chandler’s real name is revealed to be Ethan Lawrence Talbot, and he suffers from the curse of lycanthropy. This version of the character is played by Josh Hartnett.
Hecate
Hecate Poole is the witch played by Sarah Greene and is Evelyn Pool’s eldest daughter. She is the witch who pursues Ethan Chandler in seasons two and three. She shares her name with the ancient Greek goddess of witchcraft and the moon. Like Ethan’s relationship with the moon and her witchcraft ability as a Nightcomer witch.
The unquiet grave
“The Unquiet Grave” is an English folk song in which a young man mourns his dead love too hard and prevents her from obtaining peace. It is thought to date from 1400. It is heard in the mansion of the Nightcomer witches.
An online magazine about the paranormal, haunted and macabre. We collect the ghost stories from all around the world as well as review horror and gothic media.
